Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Tencent inviting bankers to pitch to work on its musical IPO | UNLIMITED | CMU

Tencent Music, the music division of Chinese web giant Tencent and owner of the biggest streaming platform in China, has invited investment banks to pitch to work on its planned IPO, according to Reuters.

Tencent is expected to spin off its music business – which also distributes global music catalogues in the Chinese market and has its own label ventures – later this year via an initial public offering in the US. Reuters reckons the IPO could raise between $3 billion and $4 billion, with a market cap valuation of about $25 billion.

Tencent declined to comment on the IPO plans, but bankers interested in working on the big musical stock market listing – which will go the conventional IPO route rather than employing Spotify’s weird direct listing approach – are expected to pitch next week.

Sources say that Tencent originally considered listing its music business on the Hong Kong stock exchange, but has now opted for a US listing. Partly because that’s where Spotify is listed, and partly because of newly introduced rules in Hong Kong in relation to weighted voting rights.